The University of Montana Western is proud to announce that 530 students have been named to the Dean’s List for the 2025 spring semester. https://t.co/0QwKr7LH0F (tw)

"This Throwback Thursday made its debut Oct. 13, 2022...and we are still looking! Throwback Thursday, the Ballad of Bob Bradley With the tip-off of Bulldog basketball season in a few weeks, let’s tell the story of a long-lost Bulldog basketball legend and someone who is not in the Bulldog Athletic Hall of Fame. We’ll call this historic ditty, the Ballad of Bob Bradley. Bob Bradley grew up in the central Mississippi town of Perkinston. After his star-studded high school career, the Bradley family moved to Calgary, Alberta. It didn’t take Bradley long to find a new basketball home. He soon filled a spot on the roster of the independent Calgary Oilers. His outstanding play with the Oilers earned Bradley a spot on the roster of the 1957 Canadian national champion Broeder Chinooks. With Bradley in the lineup, the Chinooks successfully defended their title in 1958. His exploits on the basketball court drew attention south of the Canadian border. In 1959, he became a Montana State Bobcat. Bradley’s Bobcat days were plagued with injuries. After one year, Bradley returned to Canada and rejoined the Broeder Chinooks and played on their 1960 national championship team. After Broeder, Bradley played on a Lethbridge amateur team. It was from his time with Lethbridge that he found Western Montana College (WMC). At a tournament in Chester, Montana, Western alum and basketball great George Nelson saw Bradley in action and quickly made a call to his college coach Bill Straugh. It wasn’t long before Bradley was a student at WMC and a Bulldog basketball player. Bradley had only two years of eligibility and boy, did he make the most of those two years. He quickly became a star at Western and in the Montana Collegiate Conference (MCC) now the Frontier Conference. An explanation point example of his junior season at Western came on Feb. 22, 1964 on the Bulldog’s home court against Northern Montana College (now MSU-Northern). From the opening tip, Bradley was on fire and seemed unable to miss. He scored 21 first half points, and remember, there were no 3-point field goals. To the partisan crowd and his teammates, something special was happening. At halftime, the other Bulldogs approached Coach Straugh with the suggestion to let Bradley go for the conference and school scoring record. He said yes and the previous MCC record of 52 points was shattered with a 64-point performance. The previous record was set by another Western great, Ken Jenkins in 1962 and ironically also against Northern Montana College. Bradley finished the game making 23 of 35 field goals and 18 of 23 free throws. A very impressive performance wouldn’t you say? Well, it became even more impressive when it was learned he played the game with a broken left thumb incased in aluminum splints. Bradley said after the game, “It didn’t bother me too much.” The Bulldogs also set a team scoring record with their 124-75 win over the Lights. After the game, Straugh offered high praise for his record-breaking junior transfer and rated him the greatest, all-around player in WMC history. “His sensational scoring overshadows his many other abilities on the basketball court,” Straugh said. “Bob has deceptive speed, superb timing on defense and is impossible to out-maneuver under the basket. There’s no question about his ability, he can play ball with any team, anywhere!” MCC coaches agreed with Straugh and named Bradley a first team selection to the MCC all-league team. In that junior season he shot 50 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free throw line. He also led the team and the MCC in rebounding averaging with 13.3 rebounds per game. There was more of the same from Bob Bradley in his senior season. There were no 64-point performances but plenty of double-digit scoring and rebounding games. He was named the Most Valuable Player in the Montana Collegiate Conference in a season where he again led the conference in both scoring and rebounding. In his two year, 49-game Bulldog career, he averaged 26.2 points and 12.5 rebounds per game (1,285 points and 620 rebounds). You could probably call him Mr. Clean too. Bradley committed only 105 fouls in his Bulldog career. Definitely Hall of Fame numbers wouldn’t you say? Bradly’s exploits of nearly 60 years ago have been a point of discussion of the Montana Western Hall of Fame committee of late. When looking at the eligibility requirements of the original WMC Hall of Fame constitution, a candidates must have played their entire four-year career at Western. Since those early days of the Hall of Fame, the requirements have changed. The revised criteria says the eligible candidate must play their final two years of eligibility at Western. Now, that alone lets Bob Bradley into the Montana Western Athletic Hall of Fame and when we add his basketball accomplishments, he is a shoe-in, Right? But, where is Bob Bradley? When his Western days ended even though he had professional basketball abilities, he was more interested in coaching! So the Ballad of Bob Bradley is minus the final verse. If any of Bulldog nation knows where Bob Bradley hangs his hat, please let us know so we can finish the Ballad of Bob Bradley. (fb)